- Titles: I’m Quitting Heroing: Next Gig Is at the Demon Queen’s Castle, Yamemasu Tsugi No Shokuba Ha Mao Jo
yuuyame - Genre: Fantasy, isekai?, comedy, workplace
- Episodes: 12
- Studio: EMT Squared
Nice guys finish last. Ok, maybe nice isn’t the right term here but you know what I mean. You spend your entire life fighting for all of humanity against countless foes. You give it your all, blood sweat and tears. Mostly blood, a lot of it! You stand tall against demons, devils and monsters so that none have to suffer. And what do you get for all your efforts? Nothing but suspicion and derision. Once you are no longer needed, people just toss you aside like a used tissue or something. Humanity is fickle and careless. What’s a hero to do under these circumstances? Quit heroing, that’s what! And how can a hero that quit heroing put his vast and unique skill set to good use? How about joining the recently defeated (by him) demon army. They could probably use some help!
For some reason, I often just put random isekai on my to-watch list. Even I’m not sure why. There are so many isekai out there and frankly, they start to all blur together for me at this point but once in a while, you get a really fun one. I was hoping I Quit Heroing was a fun one.
Production
I need to make a long list of ways to say “it was nothing special” in two paragraphs or so. Because it wasn’t. I find that online conversation has somewhat exaggerated everything and now people think that mediocre is bad. That anything that isn’t great, is awful. But that’s not what I’m trying to say when I classify a production as average. I just mean it’s…average.
Basically, I don’t think anyone is going to be watching I’m Quitting… because of the production. You can see the character designs in the screencaps so if you really like one of them, then go for it. Otherwise, it’s what you expect. Nothing exceptionally good or bad. Just a basic anime that functions perfectly well as a basic anime.
Story & Characters
Like I said in my previous paragraphs, I am at a point where I find that isekai/anime fantasy plotlines tend to blur together in my mind. They all have a certain feel to them. So I can’t help but have a soft spot in my heart for I’m quitting … since it surprised me!
OK, so I am not a contemporary isekai specialist. I used to watch a lot and really enjoyed them but a few years ago I burned out on the genre and found that a few very popular titles were just annoying me. As such, I have somewhat stayed away from fantasy anime, especially really popular ones, for a while. Keep that in mind since what I found surprising may actually be a fairly common trend now that is part of many shows and I just didn’t know because I have been under an isekai rock.
Another issue I have with this specific review is that for once, I don’t want to spoil anything. And without discussing some of the things that are revealed later in the series, I’m pretty limited in what I can talk about here. I’m going to do my best to share my impressions without revealing anything but I’m not sure I’ll succeed.
I’m Quitting Heroing starts out as a pretty standard comedy fantasy with a really good premise. Leo is the very powerful hero of humanity but since it’s peacetime now, he has found himself sort of pushed aside and even vilified as his once very useful strength is now cause for concern. Instead of quietly retiring or disappearing like a good hero, he decides to quit his current role and instead goes to offer his services to the demon queen he recently defeated. She’s not very receptive!
From there on, with the help of the demon generals, he manages to infiltrate the demon army and prove his worth by helping out with administrative tasks, workplace structure and balance, HR and staffing issues, that sort of thing.
Leo himself is kind of the standard smart-ass sarcastic anti-hero with a heart of gold and the generals around him are actually very nice if somewhat overwhelmed everyman (and mostly woman) types. This isn’t a harem and there are no real romantic storylines to speak of except at the very end. Mostly it’s a goofy workplace comedy. And already, that was kind of different for me.
However, halfway through, we get a reveal that seems unimportant at first. I mean it sounds like a big deal but all the characters treat it really casually, so I figured it was just some flavour. A little bit of background lore thrown in, to flesh out the world-building.
But it’s not. Slowly, as the episodes march on, this reveal takes on more importance, eventually replacing the central plot and moving the story to a completely different genre and tone. And the content of this reveal is not completely original. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen this exact plot a few times. But I have always liked this particular plot and I have never seen it integrated into a goofy workplace comedy before. It worked surprisingly well in my opinion. And honestly, on paper, I would not have thought these two plotlines could be merged without an unpleasant clash.
It’s not completely seamless and the writing of I’m Quitting Heroing is a little superficial, to begin with. But it resonated with me a lot more than I thought it would have and I honestly ended up thinking of I’m Quitting Heroing as one of the better isekais I’ve seen in recent years. Although I might like it a bit more in theory than in execution.
You might like this anime if:
You want to watch an isekai that’s a little different and that’s not a harem
My favourite character:
I think it might be Leo’s imp friend, Eibrad. He had good advice.
Suggested drink:
- Every time Leo gets a spell to the face – take a sip
- Every time Lily glomps Leo – oh my!
- Every time Lily mentions the wedding – take a sip
- Every time Echidna blushes – awwwww
- Every time anyone gets drunk – join them
- Every time Echidna hates the hero – take a sip
- Every time Edvard is a dork – take a sip
- Every time we see the kitchen rat – get a snack
- Every time there’s a flashback to the demon army’s loss – take a sip
- Every time anyone mentions The Philosopher’s Stone – take a sip
I save all my screencaps on my Pinterest and you can find more there if you are interested. But I still like to show you a few in the post. If you’re like me, screencaps are something that really helps you decide to watch an anime or not.
I ended up enjoying this more than I thought I would after episode one, and the ending totally made sense to me, too.
One thing I liked about the show is how they took the cliché main-character-becomes-MVP-by-teaching everyone and ran with it: he did teach them; but it never quite went to plan and he’d always sort of underestimated them, and then he ended up learning or facing things himself. It’s, admittedly, a low to bar to clear, but so many other shows aren’t even interested in trying that it feels like a breath of fresh air.
In the end, it was a fine show; I quite liked it. It certainly has its own identity, even if it didn’t exactly invent the wheel. And, yes, it’s rather hard to talk about the show without spoiling stuff. There’s some minor thing I quite liked, but since you avoided spoilers, so will I.
I’m very happy to hear it. I thought it might end up being one of those shows only I liked.